The World Wide Web provides a system of interlinked hypertext documents (e.g., web pages) accessed via the Internet. Users typically use a web browser application to retrieve and display the documents, which may contain text, images, video and other multimedia content. Frequently, documents contain links (e.g., hyperlinks) that when selected by a user, cause the web browser to retrieve and display other documents.
Viewing a web page typically begins when a user types the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a web page into the web browser or when the user follows a hyperlink to the web page or resource. The web browser initiates a series of communications messages (e.g., transparent to the user) that cause the web browser to fetch and display the web page. The server-name of the URL is resolved into an IP address using a global, distributed Internet database known as the domain name system, or DNS. The IP address is necessary to contact and send data packets to a web server. The browser requests the resource by sending a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to the web server located at the IP address. Typically, a web page (e.g., made up of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) text) is requested and parsed by the web browser, which may make additional requests for images and other files. The HTML tells the web browser how to render the text and images on the screen.
Many web pages will themselves contain hyperlinks to other related pages, downloads, source documents and other web resources. Frequently, the links will point to content controlled by other web sites. Many times, web site administrators will change or update their web content, resulting in hyperlinks in other documents that may point to content that no longer exists. A hyperlink that points to content that does not exist may be known as a “Broken Link” or “Dead Link” and when a user selects these hyperlinks, they may receive a “Page Not Found” error from their web browser.
While the system is described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the system is not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the system to the particular form disclosed but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present system as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words, “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including, but not limiting to.